EVERYDAY PRAYER

Memory of the Church
Word of god every day

Memory of the Church

Remembrance of Gigi, a child from Naples who was violently killed in 1983. With him we remember all the children who suffer and who die because of human violence. Prayer for all children. Read more

Libretto DEL GIORNO
Memory of the Church
Thursday, December 15

Remembrance of Gigi, a child from Naples who was violently killed in 1983. With him we remember all the children who suffer and who die because of human violence. Prayer for all children.


Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I am the good shepherd,
my sheep listen to my voice,
and they become
one flock and one fold.
.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Psalm 30, 2.4-6.11-12

1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up,
     and did not let my foes rejoice over me.

3 O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol,
     restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones,
     and give thanks to his holy name.

5 For his anger is but for a moment;
     his favour is for a lifetime.
  Weeping may linger for the night,
     but joy comes with the morning.

10 Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me!
     O Lord, be my helper!’

11 You have turned my mourning into dancing;
     you have taken off my sackcloth
     and clothed me with joy,

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

This psalm is the prayer of a man who has experienced great danger, but now is safe. He wants to recount his experience in the company of his brothers and sisters so that they will all join in his songs of thanksgiving. He says that he learned two lessons from his experience. He describes the first in this way: “For his anger is but for a moment; his favour is for a lifetime” (v. 5). In the Book of Isaiah we read even more beautiful words, “Says your God, ‘for a brief moment I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment, I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you” (54:6-8). God does not destroy, but corrects, and even his punishment—the Bible is not afraid to talk about “wrath”—arises from his love, his desire for people to come to their senses and change their hearts. The second lesson comes from an experience that many of us know and that comes from our little faith, which leads us to rely only on ourselves. During times of health and well-being, we feel powerful, until a moment of illness or difficulty forces us to rediscover our fragility: “As for me, I said in my prosperity, ‘I shall never be moved. ... You hid your face; I was dismayed’ ” (v. 6-7). During times of well-being, we easily forget the Lord and his love and we rely only on ourselves. The psalmist invites us to rediscover the fact that seeking the Lord’s love is worth more than anything else. Only humble and trusting prayer can lift us up from pain and anguish, and transform mourning into celebration and pain into joy. The psalmist himself has become so convinced of this that he even explains it to the Lord, so that he will never stop helping him: “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell your faithfulness?” (v. 9). The psalmist, who does not yet know of the resurrection, still reminds us that the meaning of life is to praise and love the Lord, always.

Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
 The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!